Advanced Tubing

Last year we went tubing for the first time and it was loads of fun. At the time, I didn't realize that our exciting trip to the Seacoast Fun Park was really rather tame. Fitting, I suppose, for tubing with a three year old. But now that J is four, we seem to have moved on to the advanced level of tubing. Not quite on purpose...

Tubing at Sunday River was one of the most terrifying and exhilarating experiences I've had in a long time. Terrifying, the first time down, because J was coming along behind me, alone, and I hadn't realized quite how fast and wild the ride would be. Exhilarating because, once she made the first run down safely, we took several more -- with me holding onto her tube -- and laughed like lunatics every time.

There is only one run. A 30-foot mountain of snow with it's center hollowed out in a steep, winding slope. As the tubes fly down, they slides up and down the sides, like marbles, never seeming to lose momentum. At the final turn, they whip around the corner and up one final steep hill, sliding back down and resting at the bottom. The sign there says something like: "Get out of your tube and clear out of here FAST!"

We worked out a system, with my husband going down first and then waiting at the bottom to help pull our tubes out of the way quickly -- before the next person came barreling around the bend. As we waited in line for our third run down, one young boy came around the corner crying because he'd been knocked down by the tuber behind him. He was fine -- although, he could have been hurt, those tubes go fast.

I'm thinking that next time we might wear helmets.